The Parting
by impossible123
Summary: An adventure goes wrong when the Doctor and Clara land on a hot, almost deserted planet. I own none of the characters except Millon and his minions :) 10000% twelveclara
1. Chapter 1

Clara and the Doctor jumped out of the TARDIS onto the sandy land.

"Come onnnnn, Doctor! Why couldn't we have stayed on the planet with all the blue aliens with large eyes? I loved that place."

"Well… yes, because they thought you were one of them with those eyes."

"No they didn't."

The Doctor gave her a cheeky smile. Clara couldn't help herself but laugh.

"So, where are we?"

"Ramala, 4th planet closest to their star. The main village is…"

The Doctor squinted.

"There."

He pointed to a village, a few metres away.

"Why didn't she drop us there, anyway?"

"Doesn't do that normally… Probably something wrong."

The Doctor hesitated.

"What are we waiting for?" She was going to head towards the village, but the Doctor grabbed her sleeve just in time.

" _You_ aren't going anywhere."

"Doctor…." She sulked.

"Clara, I will _not_ risk your life just because you want adventures….."

Clara raised her eyebrows.

"Do you _seriously_ think we were _never_ in a situation worse than this?"

"I don't care." The Doctor replied.

"The Ice Warrior in the middle of the Cold War…"

"They didn't let us leave"

"Robin Hood"

"We were locked in a cell with that laughing maniac!"

"The school-caretaker incident…."

"I had done my research beforehand."

"The Mummy on the train…."

"We were captured!"

"Skaro…"

"I was tied up and held prisoner by Davros. What do you expect me to do?"

"Letting me go with you, that's what I expect…."

Clara shrugged her arm lose and went running, laughing happily.

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: It's not normal for me to take this long to upload a new chapter... I've been having trouble with the Internet (luckily there's no WiFI from the Great Intelligence, so I'm good, I believe XD). Hope you'll love this chapter (packed, once again with 12clara ;) ).**_

* * *

"So… what do we know now for sure?" Said Clara, as she walked near the Doctor back to the TARDIS, with a spring in her step.

"Well…. Why have so many people gone missing? And, after all... why didn't they go looking for them?"

"They _did_ mention that building over there." She pointed to a battered building.

She smiled to the Doctor.

"No… no… we are _not_ going in there."

"What happened to the 'we don't walk away' motto."

"I didn't say we _will._ "

"Then we're going in."

"No, Clara, you're staying in the TARDIS. You have stories to correct, I believe."

The Doctor shuddered

"I don't know how you tolerate so many fantasy stories in one night."

"Corrections can wait."

The Doctor looked at her with his sad eyes.

They stopped to talk for a moment, just a few steps away from the TARDIS and the building.

"I don't want to lose you Clara. What if it's dangerous?"

"It's always dangerous, but thank God, I'm still alive. If I were to run away from all the risks, I wouldn't let you take me to one single adventure. But I know the risks, Doctor. There's always the last, but as long as I'm still alive, nothing's stopping me. I just want to be have another adventure with you."

She intertwined her fingers with his and led him to the building.

* * *

 _ **A/N: Hopefully I'll upload the next chapter soon enough. Any further ideas and criticism are much appreciated :D**_


	3. Chapter 3

The Doctor entered the building from the ajar door, followed by Clara.

"Looks dead to me." Said the companion.

"Things aren't always as they seem, Clara. Well… most of the time."

"So… what do we do?"

He wore his sonic glasses and they buzzed.

"We search."

They walked deeper into the building through its many corridors.

"I've been waiting for you, Doctor."

A figure walked in front of them from behind the corner.

"Clara…."

The Doctor reached for his companion's hand. Their fingers intertwined. The two began moving backward as the figure moved towards them, followed by aliens…. Short, brownish, slimy and reptile-like.

The companion looked behind her, for just a split second.

"Doctor…" Clara breathed. "We can't get out."

In fact, there were more aliens behind them, which blocked their exit, making their escape practically impossible.

 _They were surrounded._

"What do you want? What did you do to the inhabitants of the village?"

"Simple, Doctor. We used them. I knew you'd come to the rescue. All we needed was a victim. Well….. not one in this case. We successfully lured you in, with no escape. Oh… and I didn't introduce myself.

Millon, human. I must say…. I'm little out of my mind… but that's how I roll." He smirked.

"Why?" The Doctor tried to keep calm. The Time Lord wasn't worrying for himself... he could escape any trap and any cell.

Yet, he was worried for Clara, a breakable human being.

 _His_ human being.

 _His life..._

"Don't you think that you save the World a little too often, Doctor? Let it burn for once. Well.. of course I couldn't work alone. I work with these…" He gestured at the aliens. "…minions. And I must admit, they're quite helpful. We both have the same goal."

"Which is….?"

"Conquering the Universe, Doctor. Conquering _you_. Without you, the Universe would be conquered by its own."

The Doctor held Clara's hand tighter.

"Well then, leave Clara and you can take me."

Clara looked at him in alarm. "Doctor?"

The Doctor looked angry.

"You're always like that.. Doctor." Millon claimed sarcastically.

"So what?"

The Doctor could feel Clara's anxiousness… But she had to be such a control freak. She was so stubborn to come with him.

 _But she wasn't scared of what would happen... Clara knew they would get out of it._

"DOCTOR!" He suddenly felt Clara tug his hand. The minions came from behind and tried to separate them.

"CLARA!" The Doctor pulled her with all his might and embraced her hard against him, her face buried in his velvety coat.. He could feel her tremble in his arms, just a little. Millon gestured and more minions tried to separate them, 3 for each.

They both fought, but 3 against 1…. It was too hard to win against the strong aliens, even for the Time Lord, let alone the companion.

"I'll get us out of this, Clara. I promise."

Clara kept on fighting, even more than the Doctor.

 _Being captured and left alone without the Doctor..._ that _is what terrified her the most._

He could hear her desperate cries as they dragged them apart, even from different corridors.

 _I'll come find you, Clara. I promise._


	4. Chapter 4

She didn't feel well. Clara's eyes opened to find herself lying down on the cold, sandy floor of a relatively dull cell. The only light originated from sunlight outside the barred window high up.

Her head spun, felt hot all over, sweat beads formed on her forehead and she felt sick.

 _Why did she ever have to be so hard-headed?_

 _All the Doctor wanted to do was protect her._

 _And she didn't listen to him._

 _Now look what you've done Clara._

As she began slowly regaining consciousness and sensation in her limbs, the companion felt an excruciating pain in her stomach, feeling the agonisingly slow flow of warm liquids dripping silently down her waist.

Clara felt a knot in her throat. Her breaths were shallow and rushed. Tepid tears trickled down her to her ears with all the overwhelming pain she felt at that moment.

 _All the pain she could bear._

They had paralysed her, so there was no chance that she could find a way out from that cell alone.

 _In pain, immobilised, vulnerable... Nothing she could do to help herself._

 _Please come soon, Doctor…_

* * *

 _A/N: Leaving you with a small cliffhanger... Hopefully will be able to continue the story soon enough :D_


	5. Chapter 5

The Doctor rushed through the corridors of the prison.

Luckily the Time Lord was able to escape from the aliens' grasp before they were able to lock him in his cell. He had a few bruises and cuts here and there but he didn't care. The Doctor has been through more pain than what he felt at that moment. Besides, he couldn't feel anything. Adrenaline rushed through every single vein and artery. Thoughts and scenarios of what could happen raced through his mind.

 _He knew she was in terrible danger._

 _He could feel it._

But he also knew that the creatures who had held them both were anything but merciful. No capturer is merciful, really and truly.

But they were different.

These would go to new extremes.

And it was even more worrying to the Doctor.

Just because _he_ was the Doctor and Clara was _his_ companion.

 _His best friend._

He kept repeating his companion's name as he ran and scanned every inch of his surroundings with the sonic sunglasses.

He found no living being till now.

 _Time was running out._

Then…

Just then. He stepped on a trail of blood.

Tiny drops of fairly fresh crimson liquid which extended along the path….

 _Human blood, according to the sonic._

It lead down the corridor.

 _Could it have been Millon's?_

 _He hoped so._


	6. Chapter 6

Clara opened her eyes, she was still alive.

She had no intention to sleep.

What if she was seriously injured?

 _She could've died in her sleep…_

 _..._

Trying to move wouldn't help, even if she felt that the drug they had given her was starting to wear out.

She _had_ to wait for the Doctor, lying on the sandy ground, feeling blood leak out from the small wound they had inflicted on her.

The companion scraped the ground with her short fingernails, grabbing a handful of wet sand, clinching it hard, almost squeezing out all the moisture from it, as a river of tears slipped from her eyes.

Clara began shivering. She felt colder. Her breathing became staggered.

 _Oh God… she was really going to die._

She slowly felt the wound pain fading away, leaking to the sand beneath her.

 _No no… she had to wait for the Doctor. She won't leave him now._

 _He will come, for sure._

 _..._

 _Death… she knew it would have to come someday…_

But she was terrified.

Nothing she could do about that.

She just wanted the Doctor by her side.

He was her comfort.

 _The Doctor._

 _..._

He would find her dead….

She had to fight.

Clara tried to clinch the sand in her hand tighter, but she couldn't feel her limbs.

 _And this time it wasn't the sedative's fault…._

Her eyelids fluttered, blinking even more tears out… fighting the sudden sleepiness that overcome her. But the companion knew, she couldn't fight for long.

But she would still do so, in case the Doctor was just behind the cell door.

* * *

 _ **A/N: This will hopefully be the last filler chapter of the story... Planning on posting Chapter 7 (penultimate) on Monday :D**_


	7. Chapter 7

**_A/N: Never thought I would get so much response for this story! Thank you :D_**

 ** _Here's to Chapter 7 :)_**

* * *

 _Blood, Human blood…_

 _How could Clara have injured Millon?_

 _Oh God…_

 _Not…_

His eyes widened in realisation and the Doctor ran as fast as his legs could take him, following the drops and drag trails of his companion, before they vanished behind a door.

A cell door.

That door was the only escape and the only entrance.

 _He hoped._

After all there was no trail that suggested that Clara was dragged to somewhere else other than that cell.

The Time Lord panicked as he soniced the lock. He flung the door open and entered, hoping to find Clara still there.

He did.

But she was in a miserable state.

"Oh, Clara!"

He ran near her, shuffling through the sand.

The Doctor kneeled near her, not minding the bloodied sand which surrounded her.

 _She wasn't breathing._

Clara's lips were slightly parted from each other and had a strong shade of blue, fairly darker than the whitish-blue hue of her skin.

He took her pale cold hand covered in bloddied sand in his.

The Time Lord hurriedly placed 2 fingers to her neck.

 _No pulse._

"Please don't leave me, Clara."

He dried the tears from her pale cheeks.

 _They were still fresh._

 _She was still alive a few moments ago._

If only he had ran a little faster, maybe he could've just saved her, he would have talked to her. Reassure her everything was going to be ok.

 _Even if it wasn't._

She had died alone.

The Doctor huddled her closer to his chest, staining the red velvet coat.

 _Her favourite…._

She was dead.

She had left him alone.

He cried over her lifeless body as streams of tears made their way down his cheeks.

The Doctor was in no way going to give up on Clara, not when she trusted him every single time, most of the times with her own life.

"No no please Clara. Don't you dare give up on me now. Not now. Please..."

.

"Oh look…. The Doctor crying. The Doctor vulnerable….."

The Doctor's grip loosened slightly on his companion's body. His heart sped.

The Time Lord's voice was shaking badly. "All you wanted…. was me."

"Well, she's yours after all, Doctor." Millon, surrounded by his minions walked in front of the Doctor.

"But she's not _me._ " The Doctor's voice trembled even more with fury.

"Technically, she is, Doctor. She's as defiant and reckless as you are. The only thing is that she's less valuable than you. And more vulnerable." The capturer said, still surrounded and protected by his slimy alien minions. "You have to understand, Doctor. We had to do it. She wouldn't stop fighting. It was self-defense."

"No. It was torture. Just plain torture." The Doctor angrily shouted, holding Clara tighter to his chest, her head resting against his shoulder.

How he hoped that he could feel her chest rising and falling against his chest, breathing again.

What the Doctor would give to see her eyelids flutter open, for her skin to regain its colour...

But it was useless to hope in such a way.

It was too late.

This was the nightmare that had haunted him for so long... Clara had become even more like him, and he knew that if he didn't keep her under his watchful eye, it would end in trouble.

The Time Lord couldn't imagine through what torture and pain they had passed Clara through... How scared she was... The fact that he wasn't by her side for her last breaths...

"She took what she deserv-"

"It's _nothing like_ what _she_ deserves." He barked at Millon.

"You like her a little bit too much, don't you Doctor? So indirectly, you took what you deserve too."

The human turned and headed towards the door, and so did his minions.

"Lock him with the girl. Leave him to die with her."

The Doctor knew Clara always brought a penknife with her, just in case. He took it from her side pocket, opened it swiftly and silently, and threw it. It sliced through the air silently, hitting the human's neck, slumping immediately to the ground.

Dead.

The minions rebelled; they hissed and slithered towards the kneeling Doctor and Clara. But he soniced them, emitting a high pitched sound which made them writh in pain before melting into the sand beneath them.

The Doctor heaved Clara and ran to the TARDIS, sonicing any aliens on the way.

* * *

 ** _A/N: Broke my heart writing this chapter... hope you folks loved it (and sorry if it broke your heart XD ). One more chapter to go!_**

 ** _Any reviews (no flames) appreciated :D_**


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N: So... here we are... the last chapter of 'The Parting'.**_

 _ **To one last hurrah!**_

* * *

The Doctor tried his best to press buttons and push levers in order to direct the TARDIS to the Time Vortex.

"Just take off." He barked as he went to the Infirmary, still carrying Clara's bloodied body.

The Time Lord laid Clara delicately on the metal surgical bench, before going to her room and bringing her a new throwover from her wardrobe (he didn't bother taking it off her already set up bed).

"I'm sorry, Clara. I'm so so sorry…." He sobbed as he covered her to her chin. His current face had never sobbed that hard.

The time machine heard his pleads of anguish….

The TARDIS cried silently with him, before she remembered her promise.

She tried to talk to him…. He wouldn't listen.

He was enclosed in a shell he had built around him.

 _He had promised her he would save her…._

" _TARDIS interface enabled"_

The Doctor looked at the hologram standing behind the Doctor, leaning against the door frame.

It was Clara's voice.

It was _her_!

Clara… exactly as he had seen her last alive.

The Doctor gazed back at his lifeless companion.

" _Doctor."_

He didn't listen to her.

" _Doctor. Just listen._

" _Clara wanted you to find something… She made me promise I'll give it to you in case anything happened to her. "_

The Doctor turned to the Interface.

" _Go to the Library. Find her favourite book. There's something which will help you inside it…."_

The Doctor did as he was told. Among the millions upon millions of publishings, he went straight to a particular shelf where he _knew_ he would find what he was looking for. The Doctor hesitated to take the book. Clara had placed it there last. She used to read it over and over again. And he didn't want to disturb Clara's placement; a closed system of momentary time. He just wanted to leave everything how Clara had left it. Because he knew that Clara wouldn't read that book again. He knew that she wouldn't come to the library to stroke its spine before taking it, and spending hours on the library sofa to read, just because she just couldn't help it.

But for his own sake, and because that is what she wanted, he delicately took her favourite book from the small shelf.

He breathed a laugh when he looked at the cover.

' _Pride and Prejudice'_

A _signed_ copy of 'Pride and Prejudice'.

He had taken her to the 1800's. He knew how much he loved Jane Austen's writing…

The Time Lord opened it randomly.

It fell on page 12. There was a folded paper.

He took out the paper and closed the book, but then decided to get back to the Infirmary. He didn't want to leave Clara alone. Even if she was lifeless.

He sat down in the armchair in the corner, a few steps away from Clara, but at the same time, out of his sight. As he reads the letter, he didn't want to visualise a dead Clara reading it too him, in the state she was in.

But Clara, eyes twinkling, her wide grin, her contagious laugh…

He opened the letter delicately.

 _My dear daft old man,_

 _Hoping this letter reaches you soon enough…. Before any more damage is done. I begged the TARDIS to help you find this…hope she did help. If she did, then I was wrong; she is one of the best things that ever happened in my short life. Because this is more important than anything else at the moment. For both of us._

 _I've probably left by now, and this is why I'm writing this. I will probably not have much time to say any goodbyes, or to explain everything I would have liked to say at that moment. I'm sure you're very angry, frustrated and very very lost._

 _I don't want you to inflict any hurt over yourself, Doctor. You are the thing most dear to me, and hurting yourself is the last thing that I want you to do. Because I should never know, in this life or the next, that you are angry because of me._

 _Because of my mistakes._

 _I know things are getting dangerous, but I can't seem to stop. I know the dangers of travelling and fighting monsters. But it's a risk I'm willing to take when I tell you to pull down the TARDIS lever._

 _I want you to know that I've lived the best life I could hope for. I have so many wonderful memories, and I know we will have more. Each adventure, every planet we saved (and still have to save) is etched in my heart. You gave me new reason to live, Doctor, especially after Danny passed. I didn't even know how to continue with my life after you left. It was just the same boring life._

 _You taught me so many things, Doctor…. (and I still have so much more to learn before I leave); to always be kind, be good, and to always be brave, even when things don't go as planned._

 _Please remember that you couldn't have stopped what happened. In no way whatsoever. It's my fault if I'm not with you. And it's my choice to enter an adventure, with all of its dangers and pleasures._

 _You will be the last thing I hope to see, the last thought. I will probably fight for my life to stay with you, and see you for one last time. If I didn't, please understand it wasn't because I wanted to, but because I couldn't. We can't make the impossible possible, Doctor. Not in these situations._

 _Don't be angry, Doctor. Don't take revenge. Don't try to change what happened. Because you can't. I know, you will try to say that you're a time Lord from Gallifrey and you can do whatever you like…. But you can't, because of the Universe's balance and fixed points. So don't. Don't put all your work at risk. I helped you save the Universe so many times Doctor. Don't insult my work too. No one will have to suffer from my mistake. Not even you._

 _Move on. Find someone else. Because you should never be alone. I remember when you were alone in Victorian London. I can remember it like it were yesterday. Dreamt about it so many times, actually. You were so broken, Doctor. I don't want to let this happen. Not again. Not because of me. There are trillions upon trillions of beings seeking adventure. I happened to be one of them. I had my fair share. My time as a traveller is now up. The wheel of life can't stop because of me. Many others died, Doctor. Many others lost loved ones… And I'm nothing special. When I lost Danny, I lost my sanity completely. And you were there, to help me get it back. You did everything to help me hold on to it. But now, I can't help you hold on to yours if not by this letter. You're the saver of worlds. Don't destroy them now…. Not ever._

 _Please do it for me Doctor. Don't be angry…. And do one thing for me, will you? Like I told you so many times before._

 _Remember me… and I will be with you, always._

 _With love,_

 _Clara Oswald._

The last few lines were, by that time, somewhat smudged with both their tears.

 _Both united one last time._

* * *

 _ **A/N: I cried so hard whilst writing Clara's letter...**_

 _ **Thanks once again for the continuous support. I appreciated every fav., every follow and every review !**_

 _ **Will post a separate story shortly!**_


End file.
